Journey to the head

Today, the fourth generation of Yunshan Sect disciples include the headmaster Lu Qian, Wang Yu, Jiang Qingfeng, Jiang Baitao, Zhang Lemei, Hao Qiuguang, etc. After so many years of fighting and development, the fourth generation disciples are less than ten people.

Theoretically speaking, after the demise of the Yunshan Sect in Quyang County, Qingzhou, in addition to a group of scattered disciples such as Yang Jiye and Wang Yu who returned to the sect, there may be other fourth-generation or even third-generation uncles and aunts of the Yunshan Sect who are hiding in the countryside or wandering elsewhere.

However, the secret search entrusted to Yuehua Sect over the years has not made any progress. In addition, Yang Jiye and Wang Yu caused a disturbance in Quyang County in the past and abducted Zhuo Wuying of Ziluo Mountain. There were rumors in Quyang County that it was the remnants of Yunshan who did it. Therefore, martial law was imposed for a long time and a thorough investigation was carried out. Even if there were Yunshan disciples who were stranded, they would not dare to show up.

Today, the Yunshan Sect has risen again in Cangzhou, surrounded and killed Yuanying Qiming Lingjun, defeated many heroes, and dominated one side, spanning the three counties of Chongming, Sanshan, and Junle. It also established the Chongming Alliance to suppress the ten northwestern counties of Cangzhou.

The name of the headmaster Lu Qian, "Tian Yuan Zi", has become famous in the area and has spread back to Qingzhou.

I think all these events have now been known to Quyang County.

The current backbone of the Yunshan School is the fifth generation of disciples, with Lin Le as the eldest senior brother, Wu Yan as the leader, and Li Da, Wang Ruoyu, Xiao Tianci, Su Yan, Tao Zhongxian, Cui Linglong and others as the backbone.

After forty-three years of development since the re-establishment of the Yunshan School in December of the year 363 Jiashen, the recruitment of the fifth generation of disciples finally came to an end.

The head of the sect, Lu Qian, clearly pointed out that starting from January of the 407th year of Jiashen, the newly grown spiritual seedlings and the new disciples would be the sixth generation of disciples of the Yunshan Sect.

After becoming apprentices, these disciples will call the fifth-generation disciples their uncles or great-grand uncles, and the fourth-generation disciples their great-uncle or great-uncle-great-grand uncle.

Upon hearing this order, everyone in Yunshan was very excited. Thinking that from now on, they would be teachers, many disciples were excited and secretly determined to set a good example for the upcoming sixth generation of disciples.

At the same time, plans for Yunshan Sect's institutional reform began to be issued one after another, and opinions were solicited from the disciples.

Apart from the aspects that inherit the old system, there are mainly four aspects of reform.

The first aspect is the reform of the management system.

When Yunshan was re-established in the past, a system was established in which nine elders formed a Council of Elders to assist the head of the sect in handling sect affairs.

Each elder has a job, including passing on merit, internal affairs, management, rewarding, punishing crimes, supervision, foreign affairs, conquest, and public security. At the same time, each elder has two corresponding deacons who are responsible for assisting the elders in handling affairs.

But at the beginning, there were less than a hundred disciples and the population of the territory was only 1.5 million.

Up to now, there are more than 1,200 disciples, the territory spans three counties, directly governs 117 counties, and has 18 million people.

There are no major problems with this management system structure, but overall affairs are becoming increasingly busy, and the elders and deacons alone are stretched to the limit and unable to cope.

Therefore, after discussion, the Yunshan Sect Elders Council decided to expand the management team and establish the company here.

The highest authority of the Yunshan sect is still the Council of Elders, which consists of eight departments and two divisions.

The eight departments are the Department of Transmitting Merits, the Department of Internal Affairs, the Department of Management, the Department of Rewarding Good Deeds, the Department of Punishing Crimes, the Department of Supervision, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Department of Public Security.

Compared with the functions of the original nine elders, the meaningless "conquest" was abolished, because all matters of conquest were coordinated by the head and the elders' council, and there was no need to set up a separate department.

Each department is headed by an elder of the Yunshan sect, with two deputy directors and several deacons.

The number of deacons is determined based on the level of workload of the department and is discussed and approved by the general meeting of elders.

There are eight directors in total, but the number of elders in Yunshan Sect is not limited to eight. In addition to the eight directors, others can be included according to the criteria of outstanding reputation, outstanding contribution, responsibility, and support from disciples, and they will have the power to make comments and vote at the elders' meeting.

In other words, the director must be an elder of the Yunshan Sect, but an elder of the Yunshan Sect is not necessarily the director in charge of specific affairs. He can also only serve as an elder and participate in the sect's meetings but not be responsible for specific work.

At the same time, the Council of Elders also set up a number of honorary elder seats to accommodate people who have made great contributions to the development of the Yunshan Sect. They enjoy the same treatment as the elders, but do not have the right to participate in politics and decision-making.

Under the eight departments, there are many halls with different functions.

For example, under the Internal Affairs Department, there are Equipment Refining Hall, Spiritual Medicine Hall, Talisman Making Hall, Alchemy Hall, Spiritual Animal Hall, Spiritual Plant Hall, and so on.

The chief officers of these halls are the deacons in the Internal Affairs Department and the external guests of the Yunshan Sect.

The second department is the Intelligence Department and the General Staff Department.

Each department shall have a minister, a deputy minister and several staff members.

The candidates for the heads, deputy heads and members of the two departments are decided by the elders' meeting. If the head is not an elder, he will enjoy the treatment of an elder and can participate in the Yunshan elders' meeting to express his opinions, but he does not have the right to vote or elect.

The deputy minister enjoys the treatment of the deputy director of the Eight Departments. The treatment of department members is agreed upon by the minister and deputy minister and submitted to the Elders Council for discussion and approval. The standards range from senior disciples to deacons.

In addition to regular members, the Intelligence Department also has a large number of peripheral members, temporary members and intelligence personnel (spies). Except for regular members, other personnel do not have fixed benefits, but only enjoy operational funds and rewards in exchange for providing intelligence.

The Intelligence Department is mainly responsible for collecting internal and external intelligence, relying on a huge intelligence network of monks and mortals to provide intelligence support for the work of the Council of Elders and the Eight Departments.

The General Staff is mainly responsible for analyzing and assessing countermeasures, and providing strategic suggestions for the work of the Council of Elders and the Eight Departments.

The work experience and related performance in the Intelligence Department and the General Staff Department will serve as an important reference for the disciple's rank promotion and training.

The headmaster, the council of elders, eight departments and two divisions, this is the latest management structure of the Yunshan sect.

At the same time, statistics were compiled and rewards were given to the disciples for their contributions and hard work over a period of time, and the final round of adjustments and promotions was carried out before the disciple grade standards were revised.

Among them, the head disciple Wu Yan was officially promoted to the elder of Yunshan Sect, and the fifth-generation disciple Lin Le was promoted to the acting elder.

Although Lin Le has a low level of cultivation and poor spiritual roots, his superb work ability and huge contributions to the sect over the past few decades have convinced all the disciples.

In addition, he has a high status, with the head of the sect and his master Jiang Qingfeng standing firmly behind him. Now he has been found to have the ability to identify treasures, so no one dares to talk about his talent.

Therefore, the current elders of Yunshan Sect are: Wang Yu, Jiang Qingfeng, Wu Yan, Zheng Duan, and Lin Le (acting).

Honorary elders include: Xu Yingcai and Sun Hanjun.

The heads of the Eighth Department are:

Lu Qian will be in charge of the Transmission Department for the time being, and Wu Yan will gradually be involved in the work of transmitting skills and teaching methods. After Wu Yan is competent, she will be responsible for future plans.

Internal Affairs Department, Director Jiang Qingfeng. (Guest official Cui Shanyan and Deacon Cui Linglong are in charge of the Spiritual Medicine Hall, while Guest official Tao Boliang and Deacon Tao Zhongxian are in charge of the Weapon Refining Hall)
The Business Department is headed by Lin Le, director, and assisted by Li Da, deputy director.

The Reward Office is headed by Wu Yan, assisted by the steward Jiang Baitao.

Department of Punishment, Director Wang Yu.

Supervisory Department, Deputy Director Su Yan.

Department of Foreign Affairs, Director Zheng Duan.

The Public Security Department, with Deputy Director Hao Qiuguang and Deacon Wang Ruoyu as assistants. The heads of the Second Department are:

Minister of Intelligence, Lin Le.

Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Li Da.

In addition to these main persons in charge, the rest of the deacons and members have been selected from the best of the best disciples trained over the years.

However, they were not all filled, but only to ensure that each department had enough staff to carry out its work smoothly, and that the person in charge would not be left alone. There were still many vacancies in each department waiting for talented people, which was enough to motivate the disciples to keep making progress.

In this round of personnel changes, many disciples were promoted, and since then they have come to the fore and enjoyed higher treatment. Naturally, everyone is happy and excited.

At the same time, in the structure of the Council of Elders, Eight Departments and Two Divisions, the number of management positions is not fixed. In theory, even the number of elders can be increased, so the disciples' future naturally has unlimited possibilities.

The second aspect is the reform of the disciple ranks.

Originally, the Yunshan School practiced the outer gate, inner gate, and true teaching, among which the inner gate was divided into four levels: A, B, C, and D.

However, after so many years of implementation, promotion has become increasingly difficult due to the increasing number of disciples and too few levels. Many disciples have not been able to be promoted to a higher level in more than ten or twenty years, which has affected their enthusiasm.

Besides, disciples are divided into different levels and ranks, and there are also distinctions in identity such as inner and outer true disciples, which is rather confusing and not very meaningful.

Therefore, this time the Yunshan Sect Elders Council made a bold reform, completely abolishing the disciple status and only retaining the disciple ranks. From now on, the distinction between disciples will be based mainly on rank and seniority.

The new disciples are divided into ten levels, arranged as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, X, R, and G, with A being the highest and G being the lowest.

The Yunshan Sect conducts a round of spiritual seedling screening every five years, and gathers all the spiritual seedlings and their direct relatives in Lingsha City to live and be raised.

From the age of five until their spiritual roots mature, the spiritual seedlings receive enlightenment education in Lingsha City, where they learn to read and write, and study the basic theories of cultivation including meridians, acupoints, herbs, minerals, and spiritual energy. They also learn about the basic situation of the cultivation world and the overall situation of the Yunshan School.

After their spiritual roots matured, the seedlings were sent to Mianlong Mountain, where they held an initiation ceremony, worshipped the founder of Yunshan Mountain, and became Gui-level disciples.

Afterwards, they will return to Lingsha City to complete the foundation of the initial stage of Qi training. The main thing is to study the ideology and culture carefully, remember the various systems of the sect, and practice the basic exercises issued by the sect according to their respective qualifications, and supplement them with planting, breeding, making talismans, alchemy, refining and other immortal arts skills to lay a solid foundation for practice and ideology.

Afterwards, they are assessed on their accomplishments, achievements, and moral character, and are gradually promoted.

Disciples of each level have different responsibilities, rights and obligations. Generally speaking, the higher the level, the fewer internal and external tasks they have to undertake, and the more energy they can put into personal cultivation and tackling difficult tasks.

Only after being promoted to the Geng level can the "array core" be implanted and begin to practice the Yunshan School's Vast Sea of ​​Stars Array.

Only after reaching the Ding level can one take up management positions in the faction and serve as the captain of the combat sequence. And the higher the level of management position, the higher the level of the disciple required.

After becoming an elder of Yunshan, one automatically leaves the disciple rank. Before that, even if one is a deputy director, deacon, etc., one is still at the disciple rank.

When at the disciple level, each disciple's daily practice resources mainly come from five aspects.

The first is to distribute cultivation resources on a monthly basis according to the disciple’s rank, which is called monthly ration.

Second, according to the management position held, you can enjoy corresponding treatment and receive an annual salary.

The third is the extra reward given by your master after you become his disciple.

Fourth, use merit points to redeem supplies from the redemption list.

The fifth is the reward obtained for completing the sect’s mission or being praised and rewarded for merit.

In fact, the Yunshan Sect has never been short of money and has been thinking about how to spend money all day long. The treatment of its disciples is already the best among the Jindan sects.

The monthly allowance from the first point alone is enough to support the disciples to live a comfortable life of cultivation. Therefore, in order to stimulate the enthusiasm of the disciples and encourage them to strive for progress, the second point of annual salary for holding management positions is mainly composed of various rare materials, elixir talismans, array instruments, etc.

To put it another way, if this disciple has no intention of taking power and only wants to practice in seclusion, the resources for daily practice are completely sufficient. But if he is willing to take on greater responsibilities, in addition to gaining fame and power, he can also obtain better resources and achieve the result of being better than others.

The treatment of the elders of the Yunshan Sect is decided by the Sect Master and the Council of Elders, and is far superior to that of ordinary disciples. Basically, they have free access to the treasury and can take whatever they want, and enjoy the highest level of training resources in the sect.

Disciples’ ranks range from low to high, and are distinguished by the armbands they wear on their clothing.

The armbands worn by disciples of the three ranks Gui, Ren, and Xin have one to three white feathers woven on them respectively.

There are one to three silver feathers on the armbands of the three ranks of Geng, Ji and Wu.

The three levels of D, C and B each have one to three golden feathers.

As the highest level disciples, the A-grade disciples have their armband infused with the aura of the golden elixir by the headmaster Lu Qian, imbued with the rhythm of the five elements, and condensed into a five-colored spiritual feather. It represents a high honor and is also the highest pursuit of all disciples.

There was no objection from anyone in the Yunshan sect to the entire reform of the disciples' ranks. What everyone was most concerned about was which rank they would be assigned to after switching from their previous old rank to the new ten-level system.

This also consumed a lot of the Elders' Council's energy. Throughout the spring, Yunshan Sect focused its main energy on this.

It is necessary to conduct a fair assessment of the disciples' old ranks, past achievements, image reputation, cultivation status, etc. before determining their new ranks.

After several months of hard work, I cannot say that everyone was satisfied, but I have finally achieved a balance between overall satisfaction and fairness.

In addition to the elders of Yunshan Sect who have jumped out of the disciple class, the fourth-generation disciples of Yunshan Sect who are of the same generation as Lu Qian (including Jiang Baitao, Hao Qiuguang, etc.) enjoy the treatment of A-class disciples, but are not included in the new ten-level rank.

In the new rank, there are no A and B grade disciples, there are only two C grade disciples, Li Da and Su Yan, and the D grade disciples include Wang Ruoyu, Xiao Tianci, Tao Zhongxian, Cui Linglong and others.

After the announcement of the new ten-level disciple tier of Yunshan Sect, the disciples felt that the prospects were broad and the road ahead was long. Whether they wanted to stand out in the sect or just focus on personal cultivation, they now had a clear direction to work towards.

The third aspect of the reform is the reform of the merit point exchange system.

After the reform, everyone in the Yunshan Sect used the same merit point exchange list.

The merit point list will no longer provide redemption for various types of skills and secret techniques.

In the past, in order to motivate his disciples and give full play to their subjective initiative, Lu Qian designed a very comprehensive merit point exchange list.

It can even be said that even if a Yunshan disciple does not take a master, socialize, or participate in group activities or group learning, he can obtain enough merit points just by completing tasks and making contributions, and get the skills and materials he wants from the exchange list.

For its disciples, Yunshan Sect is just an exchange platform.

How much affection and loyalty can disciples trained in this way have towards the sect?
The private teaching model of master-disciple communication and inheritance from generation to generation is irreplaceable in this world of cultivation. Some of the steps now seem to be a bit too big. (End of this chapter)